This collection honors Reverend Dr. Julius Scruggs's life and his time at American Baptist College as a student and teacher.
Born February 1st, 1942 and died May 8th, 2024, Scruggs earned his Bachelor of Arts at American Baptist College and his Masters of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry at Vanderbilt University School of Divinity. In 1991, his church, the First Missionary Baptist Church, donated a gift of over $100,000 to the American Baptist College Chair of Excellence and endowed a $500,000 Chair in Pastoral Leadership and Preaching at ABC in 2001. In 2005, the John R. Lewis and Julius R. Scruggs Center for Leadership Training was dedicated at ABC. In 2024, he was the recipient of the "Heros of the Nashville Civil Rights Movement" award (Obituary, 2024).
During his time at American Baptist College in the 1960's, Scruggs almost lost his left eye during the sit-ins that took place during the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, TN (Obituary, 2024).
Scruggs was a part of President Obama's National Prayer breakfast group while he was in office and he gave the prayer for one of the Easter Praryer Breakfasts (Obituary, 2024).
He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Baptist College (Obituary, 2024).
Scruggs won the NAACP Alabama State Conference 2010 Pastor of the Year Award. The center of the award contains an exact replica of a 1955 bus token used during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Reverend Dr. Julius R. Scruggs Obituary. (8 May 2024). Royal Funeral Home (accessed 1 July 2024). Binder1.pdf.
[Yearbook]. (1960). Special Collections/Archives, Susie McClure Library, Nashville, TN, United States.